First standardised plans come into affect for the London England, Bern Switzerland and Hamilton New Zealand Temples with a strong international style flavour. The first temples outside North America or the USA were built during this period.

Two large temples with large capacities built with an extremely efficient and streamlined design. These temples were built to be used...alot. Particuarly the Provo temple built next to the large campus of the Mormon owned Brigham Young University and Missionary Training Centre. Questionable result regarding aesthetic.

The ultimate PR Temple. This was built when the Mormons were wanting to mainstream themselves not only in the USA but also the rest of the World. Where? Washington...the centre of power. It is no coincidence that this temple mimics the Salt Lake Temple.

This is a landmark along the Capital Beltway and graffiti saying "Surrendor Dorothy" have been periodically sprayed on bridges approaching the vista of the temple. The reference is self explanatory when seeing the temple.

The next four temples are precursors to the more aggressive global expansion that comes later on in the early 80's. Both Asia and South America get their first temple during this period of quiet expansion, as does the North-West of the USA and another high capacity temple in Utah to meet growing demands in the heartland.

The 80's was an unprecedented time of temple building for the Mormons. To facilitate this a couple of standards designs were formulated at HQ and varied according to size required. Many of these had to be extended significantly not long after dedication as demand exceeded projected capacity very quickly.

To put into perspective the first 22 temples were built over a period of 151 years. The next 24 were built in 7.

First temple in the Scandinavian region, first in a communist country, first in Africa and first in the pacific islands.

Atlanta Georgia
1983

Apia Samoa
1983 - Burnt down during renovations in 2003

Rebuilt 2005

Nuku'alofa Tonga
1983

Santiago Chile
1983

Papeete Tahiti
1983

Mexico City Mexico
1983

Boise Idaho
1984

Sydney Australia
1984

Manila Phillipines
1984

Dallas Texas
1984

Taipei Taiwan
1984

Guatemala City Guatemala
1984

Freiberg Germany - first build in a communist country
1985

Stockholm Sweden
1985

Chicago Illisnois
1985

Johannesburg South Africa
1985

Seoul Korea
1985

Lima Peru
1985

Buenos Aires Argentina
1985

Denver Colorado
1986

Frankfurt Germany - built with just one tower and not the normal 6 as per the standard plan used with others of this period
1987

This is where the Mormons created a new and long lasting aesthetic. This is where you see a more conservative and modern classical approach to temple architecture still in use today.

In addition to this an old Tabernacle in Vernal Utah is retrofitted into a temple and a high rise temple in Hong Kong is built that includes multiple functions other then the temple to combat high real estate prices. This would become the first in China and the second in a communist country...both facts occurring after the fact when China regains control from the British.

This is because the cost of temples traditionally is quite high. A full sized temple in the 70's such as the Seattle temple cost around 22 million dollars. You could probably build 3 or 4 smaller temples with the modern equivalent of that price.

Temple worship is the highest Sacrament in the Mormon Church however a large portion of the membership were not within reasonable traveling distance of one. In addition to this there were areas where significant growth was not expected.

Result - the prototype of the new smaller generation temples pioneered by Gordon B. Hinckley...15th President of the Mormon Church. Originally had a cream colored Angel Moroni but was gilded in traditional gold as it would often 'disappear' on a cloudy day.

intesting thread! Strange how they 'borrow' elements from existing styles, some look almost gothic, others are more like a mausoleum, while others, as mentioned, seem to be inspired by the stalinist skyscrapers...

State university, Moscow:

I'm glad we don't have these wacko's over here though...

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